The Copyright Creative Stranglehold
by: Patricia Aufderheide / American University
A discussion of the negative effects of copyright law on documentary production.
Category: Guest Columns
Notes from the Blogosphere
by: Rachel Weiss
Blogs are the new reality television.
Where’s the Beef?
by: Daniel Bernardi / Arizona State University
A look at pornography, hate speech, Donna Haraway’s cyborg metaphor, and their relationship to race in America.
Martha Stewart: Free but Still in Chains?
by: Melissa Click / University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Can Martha Stewart redeem herself through television?
Everything Will Flow
by: Will Brooker / Richmond University
In an article from 2000, seeking a word to describe the cross-platform convergence of early 21st century popular culture…I fixed on “overflow” as an update of Raymond Williams’ 1974 coinage, “flow.”
Watching Westerns in Old Europe
by: Patrick J. Walsh / Universität Passau
Americans are rich and they use the Western to explain why. So said one of my students in a class on the Western at the University of Passau in southern Germany.
I’m A Celebrity – Analyse Me: The Appeal of Celebrity Reality TV
by: Kirsty Fairclough / University of Salford, UK
What celebrity reality TV offers as opposed to its celebrity-constructing counterpart is not the transformation of the “ordinary” person into the “extraordinary,” but the opposite trajectory.
Who Wants to be a Crorepati?: Global Television and Local Genres in India
by: Shanti Kumar / University of Texas-Austin
In 2000, when Star Plus Channel launched Kaun Banega Crorepati? (KBC), the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the show quickly became the biggest hit on Indian television.
What the Arab World Should be Watching
by: Nabil Echchaibi / Indiana University
I still cherish the memory of my old shortwave radio tucked underneath my bed when I was in Morocco.
Overhaulin’ TV and Government (Thoughts on the Political Campaign to Pimp Your Ride)
by: James Hay / University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
These days, the expression “overhauling” is in the air (and “on the air.”)
The 2004 Presidential Election and the Dean Scream
by: Lisa Parks / UC Santa Barbara
What was missing in this campaign in my opinion was the lack of discussion of media industry reform, which is surprising given all the ammunition on the democratic side to address such issues.
Transform Me, Please…
by: Tara McPherson / University of Southern California
I have to confess that the chance to ‘look ten years younger’ in ten days has its appeal.